


not so bad

by halcyonskies



Series: OTP Challenge [9]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Castiel, Bullied Castiel, Demon Dean, Elementary School, Gen, Kid Fic, Supernatural Beings, Supernatural Beings are known
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 14:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7056430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halcyonskies/pseuds/halcyonskies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The start of something much better than anything he's had before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	not so bad

**Author's Note:**

> 9th Challenge - First Meeting

There were some things Castiel liked about their new house. For one thing, it was a lot bigger than the apartment they used to live in, and they had it all to themselves – no mean old man across the hall, or frumpy lady with three cats next door. There was an actual backyard to play in, and the people that had lived here last had even installed a swing set that was still there. It was broken now, both swings snapped off in some unknown incident, but Papa had promised to fix them once everything had been unpacked and put away. 

It was quiet here, too. The street they lived on was a ways from the nearest busy road, and in the morning Castiel woke to birdsong instead of squealing tires and blaring horns. Everything smelled like grass and rainwater and fragrant garden plants; in their cramped little apartment in the city, the odor of gas and trash and old cooking oil had clung to everything like a film, the inescapable scents of a place bursting with too many people. Angel noses were sensitive anyway, and Castiel was more than glad that their new home was so much greener. 

Still, Castiel hadn’t been anywhere near as excited about moving as his papa. Even if the last place they’d lived had been small and smelly, it at least had been well-known. Now everything was unfamiliar and  _ suspicious.  _ It almost made him wish they’d just stayed in that apartment with the bad smell and the strange neighbors. 

Only, Castiel didn’t  _ really  _ want to go back, if only for one very important reason: back in the city, he hadn’t had any friends. 

There hadn’t been many angels at his old school, which had immediately made him the odd one out, but those that were there hadn’t been kind to him. There had been Zachariah and Bartholomew, two angels a grade ahead of him who always called him names and made fun of his tiny wings. There had also been Naomi, Rachel, and Hester, all in the same grade as him but even less inclined to friendliness than the others. Those three had almost been worse than Zach and Bart, because they always seemed to pretend he didn’t even exist at all.

Still, the scorn of his fellow angels couldn’t even compare to the few demons that had also attended his school, and especially not those that were around Castiel’s age. Zachariah and his friends might have called him mean things, and Naomi’s little clique looked right through him, but at least they’d never actually  _ touched  _ him. Thanks to Alastair and Lilith – brother and sister, and unfortunately in the same grade as Castiel – Castiel had had to explain away more than one strange bruise or scrape to his papa when he got home from school. 

Papa always said being a demon didn’t mean a person was cruel, just as being an angel didn’t mean a person would be kind, but still Castiel couldn’t help the little shiver that went down his back every time he saw somebody with black eyes. In his experience, the only otherworldly creature he’d ever met that was worth spending any amount of time with was his own father. Even a nestling could have told Castiel that that was a little pathetic. 

He could only hope that all Papa’s talk of a fresh start being good for the both of them would hold true. 

//

Castiel had three blissful weeks of summer vacation left to his own devices before it was time to face his first day at a brand new school. That morning he trudged from the house to the car like a man might walk to the guillotine, and he didn’t appreciate the amused smile Papa graced him with as he was buckling his seatbelt. 

“I wish you wouldn’t worry so much,” Papa said, his expression softening in the rearview mirror. “I have a good feeling about today, Cas. I think you’re gonna like it here.”

Castiel wasn’t so sure. The ride to school was quiet, and by the time they were pulling onto the curb about a block from the building, the fluttering in his tummy was strong enough to make him want to throw up. He didn’t protest when his papa stepped out onto the sidewalk with him, or when the man knelt down and put his hands on Castiel’s shoulders. 

“You’re gonna be just fine, buddy. I promise.” Even though it was definitely something a nestling would have done, Castiel leaned gratefully into the comforting strength of Papa’s big wing when it was offered, large brown feathers meshing with his own dingy gray ones. All too soon Papa had returned to the car, waving encouragingly out the window as he pulled back onto the road. 

Clutching his lunchbox to his chest like it was his old stuffed kitty, Castiel joined the throng of children pushing through the school’s front doors. A quick glance around revealed more than a few sets of glittering black eyes and tiny pointed horns – he only saw one other angel, a girl much older than him, and his heart sank. Resisting the urge to pull his wings over his shoulders, Castiel gathered his courage and walked as confidently as he could to his classroom.

The door to room 18 loomed ahead. Mrs. Harvelle’s third grade class.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed inside.

//

By lunchtime, Castiel was ready for the end of the day. The first thing Mrs. Harvelle had done when class started was introduce him, and from that point on he’d been subjected to the curious eyes of everybody around him. Being the center of attention had never been his favorite, even less when he was at school, and he’d done his best to keep his head down the whole morning. At least no one had seemed outright disgusted by him. 

He retrieved his lunchbox from his locker and made his way down to the cafeteria, threading carefully through the crowd until he reached the third year tables. Seating himself at the empty end of one of them, Castiel resigned himself to a lonely lunch period. It wasn’t all that different from his old school, really, and he tried to take comfort in that. 

He’d just taken his first bite of peanut butter-and-jelly when somebody sat down across from him. Startled, Castiel stared at them with wide, uncertain eyes. 

“Hi,” the boy said. Castiel vaguely recognized him from Mrs. Harvelle’s class – he sat a couple rows back. The ink-dark eyes and sharp horns sprouting straight out of his forehead made it patently obvious that the boy was a demon, and Castiel’s throat bobbed nervously. 

“Hello.”

The boy had a tray lunch; as he was tearing open his carton of chocolate milk, he smiled across the table at Castiel. “You’re new, right?”

“Yes.”

“Where’re you from?”

A little nonplussed – he wasn’t really used to cordial conversation – Castiel looked down at the sandwich in his hands. “Um. Me and my papa moved from Michigan.”

The boy whistled softly. “Wow, that’s pretty far away. My family’s always lived here.”

Unsure what to say to that, Castiel just nodded and returned to his lunch. In spite of the dead black eyes and intimidating, albeit small, horns, Castiel relaxed onto the bench. Maybe it was because the boy seemed so unassuming, or maybe it was that he didn’t have that cruel little curl to his mouth that Lilith and Alastair had had. Whatever it was, Castiel found himself warming to this demon boy.

“I’m Castiel,” he offered after a few minutes of not-quite-awkward silence. “Um. You can call me Cas if you want.”

“Cas.” The boy seemed to consider that for a moment, head tilted thoughtfully. After a few seconds, he nodded decisively. “‘Kay. I’m Dean.”

Before he had a chance to acknowledge the introduction, Dean had launched into a new topic of conversation. “I like your wings, Cas. There’s not a lot of angels around here. Just demons and humans. Well, Charlie’s a witch-in-training, but that doesn’t really count.”

The boy rambled on in that fashion for the rest of lunch, but Castiel didn’t mind in the least. By the time the bell had rung and they were walking back to class, it seemed that he’d gained a new friend. His first one, really, and a demon to boot. But he couldn’t have been happier if he tried.

For the first time in a long time, Castiel was actually excited to tell his Papa about school.


End file.
